Francisco Varela
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Francisco Javier Varela (1946-2001)
(Whitaker, n.d.)
Biography
Francesco Varela was born September 7, 1946 in Chile. From 1951 till 1963 he went to the German Lyceum in Santiago, Chile. After that he went to the Catholic University of Chile, specifically he studied at the School of Medicine. From 1965 till 1967 he studied at the University of Chile where he got his M.Sc. in Biology. After that he studied at Harvard University in the United States from 1968 till 1970 where he got his Ph.D. in Biology. The title of his thesis for his Ph.D. is Insect Retinas: Information processing in the compound eye. After gaining his PH.D he began teaching. At first he taught general biology at Harvard University from 1968-1970. In 1970 he went back to Chile and taught Cell biology at the university of Chile from 1970-1973. In 1974 he went to Colorado where he taught Histology and Cell biology at the university of Colorado Medical School till 1978. In the same period he also taught research seminars in Neurosciences. Then again he went back to Chile where he taught Neurosciences and Advanced topics in neuroscience at the university of Chile from 1980 till 1985. In 1986 he went to Paris where he taught U.E.R. Physiology at the university P. et M Curie and Cognitive science and epistemology at CREA, Ecole Polytechnique. Francisco Varela died May 28 in 2001 in Paris.
Work
Francisco Varela is most famous for the development of the concept of autopoietic systems. He developed this concept together with his teacher Humberto Maturana. Autopoiesis means self-creation. According to this theory, living systems are autonomous and the minimal form of autonomy necessary and sufficient for characterizing biological life is self-production having the form of an operationally closed, membrane bounded reaction network. It is a self reproducing system, symstem reproduce themselves by observering themselves. Niklas Luhmann also used this term, he used it in a context of social systems
His most important works are Principles of Biological Autonomy and Autopoiesis and Cognition; The Realization of the Living which he wrote with Humberto Maturana and The Tree of Knowledge which he wrote with Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch.
Video Francisco Varela
For a video about Francisco Varela [1]
References
Gren, M. & Zierhofer, W. (2003). The unity of difference: a critical appraisal of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems in the context of corporeality and spatiality. In: Environment and Planning A. Vol. 35, pp. 615-630.
Whitaker, R. (n.d.). Francisco J. Varela. Retrieved Octobre, 12 from http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html#Resume
Contributors
Page created by --SusanVerbeij 11:16, 16 October 2011 (CEST)
Edited by Lotte den Boogert, 17 october 2012.
